So, me and Liverpool Club. It’s quite a long story. It’s based on a long relationship that has been a constant in my life since I was a child. It’s outlived so many lesser relationships, including those with parents (well, one of them), previous partners and the like. We’ve never fallen out. I had one episode of temporary separation, but as I will explain later, there was good reason, and the parting was only brief.
So how shall I tell this love story? This story of extreme passion? A passion that has given so much to me, but also helped cement so many other of my relationships by means of common experiences?
Maybe some sort of diary might be the way forward? I can’t guarantee all the exact dates or all the correct scorers. What I can guarantee is the strength of the emotions related therin. My diary could have a thousand chapters which will remain unwritten. I shan’t bore you with all of these; maybe ‘edited highlights’. My personal ‘Match of the Day’.
8th May 1971
So where did it all start? I always loved football. In the early days I would be Kevin Keegan, scoring derby winners in my garden. My first concrete memory is of that nasty Charlie George, laying prostate on the Wembley turf in 1971, having scored the Arsenal winner in the FA Cup final, breaking my little heart in the process. I, aged 6, was watching TV in my Liverpool kit. I’d bobbed in and out of the house since 7am in the morning. I watched the team eat their brekker; I watched them get on the team coach. That’s how it was those days; the FA Cup final was the only game you not only saw live on TV, but you spent the whole day pan out leading up to the game.
7th March 1973
My first game, first of many hundred, seen under the Anfield lights. We were playing Dynamo Dresden in the UEFA Cup, and my whole family were there. How we all got tickets is another story, and you might not believe this part; my Dad was doing some sort of medical on Kevin Keegan, and he came to our house. I was in bed, but nipped down to say hello. Sadly I was dressed in my sister’s pink pyjamas, something that haunts me to this very day. I spent a memorable half hour asking 6-year-old type questions of my hero. ‘What’s it like playing for Liverpool?’ ‘What’s Bill Shankly like?’ He was top. My hero, speaking to me like an adult. Anyway back to the game. We won 2-0 with goals from Brian Hall and Phil Boersma. The lights, the atmosphere… my addiction/love affair was ignited. This is where I would come. Whenever I could. This was my spiritual home; my religion even. A bit like my early calling aged 12 to medicine – I knew it at that moment.
27th November 1976
This was the first game after my 12th birthday. My dad managed to get three tickets for the game. I had three mates who NEEDED to come, so I talked my dad into giving them the tickets as I knew we could pay in at the gate. I went for the Paddock, and my memory is seeing a screamer from Joey Jones going into the top corner of the Anfield Road goal. God I loved coming to this place.
21st May 1977
There was a competition in one of my dad’s magazines for two FA Cup final tickets. There were football and medical questions, and between us we managed to win. Wow! And my beloved team were playing Man Utd at Wembley. Sure, we lost, but what happened on the way back will always stay with me. We got onto our train back fom Euston, and the whole team (minus Keegan, who was having talks with Hamburg apparently) were in the next carriage. After an hour or so of hesitating, I walked down the train, and they all dutifully signed my programme. This was the same team that went on three days later to win the European Cup in Rome. Sadly this programme is now lost in the mists of time, but what a day!
19th August 1978
So I was 13. My folks were off on holiday, and my gran was looking after us. I’d asked before if I could get the bus to the game, but had been turned down by my folks as I was ‘too young’. My gran didn’t know though! I hopped on the number 68 bus and went to the game on my own. I paid 90p to go onto the Kop, and the rest, as they say, is history. My personal LFC history, within the history-making years of the team. I saw amazing European games under the lights, saw us win the league numerous times, and in my eyes my life was nigh on complete! For the record, we beat QPR 2-1; King Kenny and Stevie Heighway scored the goals.
29th May 1985
This is a date most Liverpool fans will know all too well. I was a third year medical student at Manchester University (I made the decision to go there as I just HAD to leave home, but I needed somewhere close enough to get back to the game). It was the day before my third year medical exams. I obviously had to be back for my exams, so I booked a day trip from Speke airport to the Heysel Stadium. Until the game, I had a great day. Drinking with Italians, it all was going swimmingly until going into the ground. I had noticed rather a lot of Union Jacks around, which as you know is just not our style. The ground was run down, and I noticed the supporters behind the goal were very close together. I was in the stand to the side. The skirmishes began. There were medics on the pitch, people getting carried off. In the stand we didn’t know of the true horror unfolding until someone came up the stairs from below in the stand. ‘There’s loads of bodies’ he cried. I knew at that moment how massive this potentially was. My first thoughts were for those injured, and also for the reputation of my beloved club. The game hardly mattered; I couldn’t go early as I needed transport to the airport. Juventus had to win, and I didn’t even complain when they were given the dodgiest of penalties.
Remember these were the days pre-mobile phones. I got back to Liverpool around 5am, and went home. My family were in tatters. Apparently my little sister thought she had spotted my bag next to a body lying on the pitch. They thought I was dead.
My love affair with football waned for a few weeks. My parents said they wanted me never to go to another game, and I didn’t have the mental energy, or even the conviction, to argue. Not until the new season started anyway. I just had to go back.
15th April 1989
I wasn’t at Hillsborough. I’d booked a holiday with my fellow young doctors, and after agonising about it, I missed the game. I was getting a lift back from Gatwick airport when the horror unfolded. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I went back to Anfield to show my respects. I stood at the edge of the thousands of bouquets of flowers lying on the pitch, I was on the half way line, and the flowers were laid out all the way to the Kop. Tears were in my eyes as I tied my scarf at my ‘spec’ on the Kop. Lives lost, families broken needlessly. Here we are 30-odd years later and justice is only starting to be done.
28th December 2004
I took my eldest to Anfield for his first trip, aged 6. Proud dad! This was what I always wanted. The fact that we were in the toilet when we scored, and that he was cold before the end and wanted to go home, it didn’t matter a jot!
1st May 2007
I took my partner, now wife, to her first game. Chelsea in the Champions League semi-final. What an atmosphere! She loved it and to this day totally understands my LFC obsession. She’ll do for me!
7th May 2019
We’d lost the first leg in Barca 3-0. I met my lads in Liverpool, had a bit to eat, and we chilled together before the game. We had no chance, so let’s see Messi and Suarez; hopefully we’ll sing a decent rendition of YNWA at the start.
We had good seats in the middle of the Kop. The rest is history. I was there with MY LADS! Before then, I not only sung about the Glory on the Field of Anfield Road, I’d witnessed it first hand. I’d seen them win the league, win the European Cup. I’d seen us beat Barca, Real. I was at the Olympiakos game, but my lads deserved something better than seeing Stevie G try to work miracles with a below average team. This was THEIR night. Mine too. I’ve watched the highlights once or twice!
21st June 2020
I’m at home writing this blog, an hour before the derby. It’s sad – my ‘bucket list’ request was to see us win the League with my lads, now 21 and 19. I had tickets for us for all the remaining home games. This is our year, and yet here we are, watching it on TV. I’m happy though. We’re watching it together; we’ve got an amazing team. We’re healthy, and we all love this amazing club of ours. This is my family; I hope my LFC family enjoy reading this.
Walk on, walk on with hope in your heart, and you’ll never walk alone.
If you like Dr Andy Hershon’s writing, check out his book – 15 Minutes With You: Tips on Medical Consulation and Other Musings
